This invention refers to an ophthalmological instrument for the removal of an artificial ocular lens mount from the eye.
Such an instrument has been known to exist in a variety of configurations.
For example: the company Katena Products, Inc. is marketing such an ophthalmological instrument under the name "LensLoop Amputator". This instrument, however, is only designed to cut off the haptic, without being able to remove it from the eye.
The removal of an artificial lens (so-called intraocular lens) from the eye is frequently necessary. In the 50's it was the so-called "Tannheim Lenses" which, after implantation, had to be removed again in approximately 50% of all cases. New lenses designed in the years following had fewer side effects, but their removal is increasingly necessary. This is caused by a growing number of implantations (approximately one (1) million annually) and a multitude of lens designs (approximately 500) which, in part, do not live up to their expectations. Also, for many patients (especially in the U.S.A.), an erroneous preoperative diagnosis of the power level required for the optical lens unit is the reason to seek a change of lenses. Today, most lens implantations are performed in areas of the eye that are only partially visible to the surgeon, i.e., behind the iris where the lens haptic--depending on its shape--and the eye tissue have formed adhesions. Removal of such a lens can easily lead to severe eye injuries. Therefore, the peripheral lens haptic is frequently left in the eye.
Previously, there has been no ophthalmological instrument which, by means of an appropriate capturing device, would be capable of gripping the portion of the lens mount located behind the iris (mostly invisible), and cut it off the optical unit, in one single operation. To date, it was only possible to cut or nip off such lens loops. With the help of a second instrument (usually a forceps), it was then attempted to grip the separated portion and pull it from the eye.